The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, announced today that it will assess the effectiveness of state efforts to keep livestock waste out of the Chesapeake Bay. The move is intended to resolve a lawsuit (Fowler v. EPA) filed against the agency to more rigorously protect the Chesapeake Bay from pollution. In response, The Pew Charitable Trusts is urging President Barack Obama to fulfill his...Read More

On May 26, authorities in Palau set fire to a Vietnamese vessel engaged in illegal fishing near Tobi Island, in the southwest of the Pacific nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). A number of similar vessels carrying sea cucumbers, shellfish, turtles, and protected fish have been seized by Palau’s Division of Marine Law Enforcement in recent years. This latest enforcement action...Read More

A week after a historic vote in the Palau Congress, President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr. signed legislation Oct. 28 that establishes one of the largest protected areas of ocean in the world. It’s the latest in a series of major wins for efforts to protect some of our most important and unspoiled ocean environments.Read More

Palau is an archipelago of more than 250 islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The nation’s people and their culture are deeply tied to Palau’s legacy of conservation. The waters surrounding the islands are home to more than 1,300 species of fish and 700 species of coral, and often described as an underwater wonder of the world.Read More

Palau President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr. has released a five-year monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) plan to fight illegal activities and manage emergency responses in the Pacific island country’s rich waters, most of which are included in a new national marine sanctuary.Read More

In a major win for marine life, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress today voted to support increasing the portion of the ocean that is highly protected to at least 30 percent to help effectively conserve biodiversity.Read More

When the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was established in 2006, it was the largest highly protected marine reserve in the world at 140,000 square miles (363,000 square kilometers). Creation of the monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands received bipartisan support in the United States and was followed by the designation of more than a dozen large-scale marine parks around the...Read More

In a major win for marine life, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress voted to support increasing the portion of the ocean that is highly protected to at least 30 percent to help effectively conserve biodiversity. In an equally encouraging step, the IUCN also adopted a motion calling for protections and sustainable management of marine...Read More

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s 2016 World Conservation Congress runs from Sept. 1-10 in Honolulu. The IUCN gathering will bring together thousands of government leaders and decision-makers from around the world, island and indigenous peoples, and environmental advocates, including experts from Pew. Attendees aim to address the global challenges facing the environment.Read More

In the grand expanse of U.S. marine waters, few places hold the diversity of life found around Hawaii. That abundance helped drive the 2006 establishment of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which protects 140,000 square miles of ocean and atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; the area is home to more than 7,000 species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on Earth.Read More

President Tommy Remengesau Jr. of Palau announced Feb. 4 at the United Nations that he plans to ban all commercial fishing from his Pacific island country's exclusive economic zone. This step would transform the 200 nautical miles surrounding Palau into a fully protected marine reserve. Remengesau spoke at the U.N. meeting on “Healthy Oceans and Seas.”Read More

In January 2009, President George W. Bush established the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, made up of three sections: the Islands, Volcanic, and Trench units. The monument is located in the federal waters and submerged lands around the Mariana Archipelago, about 1,400 miles south of Japan. The Mariana Trench, at 36,000 feet, is the deepest place on Earth—more than a mile deeper than Mount...Read More

In June 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced it would expand protections for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. This collection of seven islands, atolls, and reefs between Hawaii and American Samoa contains nearly 250 seamounts, or undersea mountains, as well as amazing coral ecosystems that provide breeding, nursery, and feeding grounds for whales, sea...Read More

On August 26, 2016, President Barack Obama set a new standard for global conservation by announcing the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to cover an additional 442,760 square miles (1.15 million square kilometers).Read More

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